Ludo Bites Pop Up

My friends on the Mainland are always getting to go to these really neat Top Chef events so I was REALLY excited when I read in the paper that not only was Ludo Lefebvre of Top Chef Masters opening up one of his pop up restaurants in Hawai'i, but on the BIG ISLAND. Of course it was on the other side of the island in the resort-y area of Waikoloa (because who's really going to do a fancy pop up in Hilo???). Chris and I promptly headed over to the other side for the day. (Ludo's website: http://www.ludolefebvre.com/ludobites)

The plan was actually to use my snorkel trip I had won at the chocolate festival silent auction, but they were booked up. Then we were going to spend the night and go diving with my new dive camera housing, but then I was coming down with a cold. So most of the day was a minor bust haha. We spent the day at my favorite beach ever - Hapuna and then we did manage to snag a seat at the Ludo Bites Pop Up 9!

LUDO BITES - HUALALAI

We sat down and actually while we were looking at our menu Ludo came out and was chatting up the people in the table right next to us! I was too chicken to go over and talk to him. Plus we had just dragged ourselves out of Hapuna and were sandy and salty...not really fine dining resort restaurant ready!

THE MENU

We ended up ordering the Kampachi-Vietnamese Style, Seared Foie Gras Pina Colada and the Confit Pork Belly. Basically the menu is composed of these little "bites" (duh) not really full entrees. However these were pretty expensive bites...so while most people were ordering the full menu...we could NOT afford that! Nor the $18 specialty cocktails.

The first plate was our Kampachi which was surprisingly refreshing. It had a nice acidic palm sugar vinaigrette and had fried lotus root, green banana, Tahitian limes, (really yummy) pickled Maui unions, and a whole mess of other stuff I had never tried all julienned over the kampachi. It was really good. I liked, but didn't love kampachi...but I'm really not a seafood fan.

"KAMPACHI - VIETNAMESE STYLE"

I had always wanted to try foie gras and here was my chance to have some nice fatty liver :) Ludo had a Seared Foie Gras Pina Colada on his menu. When it came out it was not at all what we were expecting...but once we started eating it - it was like something straight out of a Top Chef episode! It was deconstructed and had a foam :) Everything was cannelled (I may not cook, but I know the techniques!). There was like a coconut ice cream, a pineapple foam and of course the foie gras. The plate was also sprinkled with mac nuts....the verdict? I do not like foie gras...bleghhh. Chris on the other hand LOVES it. I will say that the combination all together was really really good and actually really like a pina colada with foie gras. Needless to say I was pretty good with the foam + ice cream - the foie gras. Still impressive since I hate the flavor of coconut.

"SEARED FOIE GRAS PINA COLADA"

I have also always wanted to try pork belly since everyone always raves about it on the cooking shows. I've also never had risotto which is seemingly the downfall of at least a few Top Chef contestants every season. This was probably my favorite dish. There was a furikake (it's a seaweed/dried fish/etc seasoning) risotto which I absolutely loved. First I LOVE furikake and it's one of my favorite things I've discovered in Hawaii and I loved the risotto. It's not what I expected since I always thought risotto was supposed to be creamy...hmmm perhaps Ludo is guilty of another Top Chef mistake - misnaming a plate item (Actually this is a bigger problem on Chopped)! Needless to say, his "risotto" might have been pretty toothsome, but I loved the texture and the taste. The pork belly is basically fatty pork bacon...I kept thinking of Anthony Bourdain while I ate it (Can you tell I love cooking shows?). It went great with the other elements on the plate. I'm not sure what the green puree was, but it tasted really fresh and I liked it. The squash was good, but I could've done without the Kona coffee "ash."

"CONFIT PORK BELLY"

I didn't get great pictures since I'm not a food stylist and we were hungry. But we left feeling very pleased and pretty full (although I would be hungry by the time we pulled into our driveway) we drove back to Keaau.

Here's some random tester pictures Chris took at Hapuna...it was really choppy so he barely stayed out there...but the casing works! Can't wait to go diving with it and especially since I got some of those great seasickness patches...although I had to go through a pretty kooky Punatic doctor at the walk-in clinic for the prescription.

Here are some random pictures Chris took at Hapuna with the new camera and underwater casing. It was crazy choppy out there so he really didn't stay out long enough, but everything works and we can't wait to go diving with it. Especially since I have those seasickness patches...although I had to go through this crazy kooky Punatic doctor at the Pahoa walk in clinic to get the prescription. (Even the Target pharmacists were agreeing with me how kooky he was!)

Journey of a Cacao Pod to a Chocolate Bar

WARNING: THIS IS A LONG POST ... NERD ALERT! :)

One day when I was walking in Hilo I saw a coffee shop with an ad for a chocolate making class. Of course I just HAD to take this class and I dragged along Chris (okay, I didn't really drag him - he was pretty interested too!) and after several false starts (once we were sick, the next class the instructor was sick and then it POURED) we finally took the class today.

Tom Sharkey used to be a teacher but then quit teaching to start his farm in Papaikou (just outside Hilo). It was raining all day, but that's Hilo so the show went on. Our group was actually mostly people who were really interested in starting their own cacao growing ventures, so Chris and I were a little out of place, but we learned a lot!

First Tom took us through his grove of cacao plants. There are several different varietals, but I think Tom grows Criollo, Forastero and Trinitario.

CACAO FLOWERS AND BABY PODS

CACAO GROVE

Our first task was to wander through the grove and pluck down ripe cacao pods. The color doesn't really matter so much although you are looking generally at red/orange/yellow pods. You can tell which ones to pick if you scratch the pod and the flesh is yellow under the skin rather than green. I was amazed at how many pods grow on a tree. Tom says he picks about once to twice a month.

PICKING A POD

The other thing that is really neat about this little farming endeavor is that the vine you see in the picture below is a vanilla bean vine growing on the cacao!

CHRIS + CACAO + VANILLA

CHRIS WITH VANILLA BEANS AND A CACAO POD

Along the way we sampled some of the beans from right off the tree. The fleshy white fruit around the bean varies, but there was one varietal we tried that was delicious. It was sweet and tarty...but I wasn't a fan of eating the bean with it.

Once you gather a sack of cacao pods then we settled in for stage two:

OUR HARVEST

Basically you whack the pod a few times with a mallet, crack open the pod and pull the beans off the "umbilical cord." You can get anywhere from 20-60 beans per pod. It's goopy and messy, but pretty cathartic! This ended up actually being my favorite part of the tour :0)

WHACK, CRACK OPEN THE POD, PULL OUT THE BEANS

I ACCIDENTALLY PULLED OUT THE ENTIRE UMBILICAL CORD AND THE BEANS!

Once you've opened the pods and pulled the beans out, the fermentation process starts. Basically the beans are left out and the natural yeast in the environment start eating away the fruit. This takes about 5-7 days with daily stirring of the beans to ensure they are constantly getting exposed to the yeast, oxygen, etc. The beans get up to 115 degrees through this natural process! This is when you develop the chocolate flavor.

The beans are then laid out into the sun to dry. The temperamental Hilo weather can be somewhat uncooperative, but generally they just lay out in the sun to dry out. This can take up to 6 days. The beans are ready when you can crack them open.

DRIED BEANS

At this point we got to sample the raw cacao beans. The first thing you get hit with is chocolate flavor, but then BAM this incredibly bitter and lingering taste. Depending on the bean varietal, how it fermented and how it dried the bitterness can be slightly different...but still BITTER. BLAGH!

You don't have to roast the cacao beans, but it really brings up the chocolate flavor if you do so.

Next Tom runs his beans through a Crackenstein which basically crushes up his beans and nibs:

NIBS & BEAN SHELLS

Then he winnows the mix so that he gets just the nibs:

NIBS

The nibs are still incredibly bitter...yuck! However, after this process we are ready to head into the kitchen :)

In the kitchen, Tom runs his nibs through a Champion juicer or peanut butter maker. This makes a chocolate paste.

MAKING CHOCOLATE PASTE

Then the paste is put into a Santha wet grinder which conches and refines the chocolate. Conching allows the chocolate to lose some of "fresh" taste and release some of that bitterness and tannins. Refining is allows you to grind up all the little particles so that you can have really smooth chocolate. Tom runs his chocolate through the Santha for at least three days.

VIEW INSIDE THE SANTHA WET GRINDER

At this stage you can add your additives into the chocolate. For our class we just added vanilla (made from the extract Tom made with Seagrams' vodka and some of his own pods) and sugar. After the ingredients are added and the chocolate has been conched and refined, you have to temper it. Tempering allows chocolate to get its glossy finish and it's all about heating and cooling the chocolate. Once we tempered our chocolate we poured it into squeeze bottles and got ready to fill our molds! I like the technique of a pour and then someone comes along with a squeeze bottle with a cap so that you can add just the right amount. Tap the molds to get out the air bubbles and into the fridge for 15 minutes to cool and harden!

POURING CHOCOLATE INTO THE BAR MOLDS

Once the chocolate hardened we got to bag up our bars and then seal them to take them home! We made chocolate bars and hearts. There was enough for each of to get 3-4 bars and 2 bags of chocolate hearts :)

ASSEMBLY LINE: UNMOLD, BAG, SEAL BAG

FINAL PRODUCT

Tom is really great. He's really passionate about creating a viable Hawaii cacao plant and it definitely seems to be a labor of love over money. We also each got cacao seedlings and vanilla cuttings! (I think this was because everyone was starting farming...we just lucked out!) I think all these little eco-tourism things Chris and I keep doing on the Big Island make us want to buy a little ag land so we can have a farm with cacao, vanilla, goats, llamas and other fun stuff :)

Some interesting references:

- http://www.cacaoweb.net/cacao-tree.html

- http://www.chocolatealchemy.com/